Around the World in Six Hours and Fun With Natural Disasters
Last week (okay, almost two weeks ago now) I visited the World Expo in Aichi. I got up early on Friday, did a little last-minute cleaning and packing, and headed off to catch my train. On the way to the station, I thought my suitcase was pulling a little funny, so I knelt down to see what the problem was. One of the wheels had a big gouge in it, which was getting bigger as the rubber got pulled along the pavement. I guess the ten minute walk between my apartment and the train station was too much for the poor thing--but really, I only bought that suitcase a year ago. When I started back up, the wheel wasn't moving at all; I was just dragging it. At any rate, I safely made it to Amparo's house (although I developed some lovely calluses from dragging my suitcase) and we spent the afternoon relaxing and chatting. We watched a home improvement show where they fixed up a manga rental store that housed over 20,000 manga. The narration informed us that the owners still purchase about 50 volumes of manga every month.
Me: I buy about that much...
Amparo: Yep, that'll be your collection in sixty years.
On Saturday we went out to an Italian restaurant for lunch, and came back to find that the mailman had attempted to deliver the new Harry Potter in our absence (of course). So we waited for him to come back, and I may have read a few dozen pages, and then we went out shopping to get some supplies for cake making. After we got back, and I read some more Melissa showed up. We chatted for a while, and then proceeded to make a bunny cake. The frosting didn't turn out that great (it was too sweet...and coming from me, that's saying something), but it was awfully cute. We ate our cake, drank chocolate shakes (spiked with cookies and cream liqueur) and watched some...er...culturally enriching entertainment. It was...very...enriching.
We went to bed although some of us may have stayed up until four in the morning reading, and then got up bright and early at 5:00 to head out to Nagoya. We left around 6:30, and after some minor disagreements with the ticket machines (What do you mean I can only buy a ticket for a train from Maibara??) we were on our way.
It only took about an hour and a half to get to Nagoya, but little did we know that the fun part of the journey would be getting from Nagoya to the Expo site. First, you have to get on a special train, which stops about eight million times and takes about 40 minutes to get to the last stop. From there, you get off, and get on either the shuttle bus, or the tram (called the "linimo," which, in some bizarre Japanese idea of an abbreviation, stands for "linear motor") both of which add another 10 minutes to your journey...or would, if you didn't have to wait a half hour to get on them. Finally, we arrived, but before we could get too excited about this, we noticed that there was a huge crowd at the front gate, which did not appear to be moving through the gate at all. We stood in the crowd for about an hour and a half, speculating what the holdup was; when we finally got through we realized it was just a simple matter of too many people trying to get through the airport-esque security check (complete with metal detectors and X-ray machines) at once. As we went through security, we heard one man get angry and yell at the attendants, which is VERY unusual in Japan.
The problem with waiting an hour and a half just to get into the the gate is that we were all hot, tired and hungry before we even did anything. All I could think about was sitting down and having a drink of water. I wanted to go in the Wonder Circus Pavilion, but the wait was almost two hours, so we passed and headed for Spain instead, as we had seen a picture of a pirate ship galleon in my Expo guidebook. We stopped in a couple Southeast Asian pavilions on the way, and I think that Malaysia was actually really neat, but I was too tired to really care. Damn you, Half-Blood Prince.
As we walked from Southeast Asia to Europe, we found some vending machines, and stopped to have a drink and sit down for a moment. Feeling slightly better, we set off again for Spain. The Spanish Pavilion was mysteriously decorated with hexagons. We weren't really sure why, but we proclaimed them Pirate Hexagons and liked them. Even the attendants had hexagons on their uniforms, which amused us greatly. We waited in line a bit and then entered, where I was disappointed to discover that the pirate ship galleon was actually just a small model. Well, okay, as models go, it was really big, but I was expecting it to be a huge, room sized thing, maybe one that you could walk onto. Oh well. (It was Magellan's ship, incidentally.)
We left Spain and were thinking of going into Germany, but the line was too long, so we passed on it. The line for the bathroom was even longer, so we passed on that, too. We headed for a food court in the Japan Area, and found a bathroom there that was slightly less crowded...but right by the smoking area, which was only slightly less smokey than your average house on fire. Anyway, we waited for about fifteen minutes for the bathroom, and then headed to the food court, where we saw a bathroom with no line whatsoever. Typical. The air conditioned area was so crowded we had to fight to get seats, and then I ate some Turkish thing called a pide. (Mine was not lamb, obviously, it was cheese.)
After lunch, we felt obligated to check out the US Pavilion, so we headed over to North America. We stopped in the Mexico Pavilion on the way, which was really neat. I liked that they had some guys out front singing so you had something to amuse you while waiting in line. I also liked that they had a gift shop--they didn't have anything I wanted to buy, but I would have liked to buy something from some of the other places we visited ("Look, I've been to Malaysia!"), which didn't have gift shops.
The US Pavilion featured some sort of show, so there was a forty minute wait to get inside. (I tried to get us to the front of the line by saying that we were from the US, with no luck. But the guy I talked to was from the Detroit area.) When we got up nearer to the building itself, we were surprised to see a sign that proclaimed "WELCOME TO THE US PAVILION VISITORS." I wished that I had a Sharpie so I could have added a comma. There was such a big crowd, I'm sure no one would have noticed. Missing comma aside, I was not all that impressed with the US Pavilion. It was your typical Lookie What Science Can Do!! show (and why would anyone EVER think that Ben Franklin dancing to hip hop is a good idea?), but I was happy that I got to sit down for ten minutes.
We then headed back to the Wonder Circus Pavilion, where the wait was down to eighty minutes. It was a nifty little ride, but not worth the eighty minute wait. After coming back outside, we decided to brave the gift shop, which was quite the adventure. First of all, the store was so full there was a line to get in. Once you got inside, it was like trying to shop on a rush hour commuter train; it was all you could do to move, let alone see what kind of merchandise was available. Then, when you finally selected your purchases, you had to go back outside and wait in line for another half hour to get to the cash register. It was about 6:30 by the time we finished shopping, so we then headed out the gates to get in line for the train home. Fortunately we managed to sit (and sleep) the whole way back. We got home around ten, and all crashed into bed although some of us may have stayed up to read some more.
We took it easy the next morning, and once I finished Harry Potter sometime after noon we headed into Kyoto to shop. I needed to buy a new suitcase to replace my poor dragging thing (the second wheel of which was now also starting to go), and also Amparo had generously offered to make a yukata for me, so we needed to buy material. By the time we finished our purchases, it was after three, and I wanted to head home. I had not gotten a ticket for the trip home, so I went to the ticket machines to get one, only to find that the machine in question didn't sell reserved seat tickets. I really wanted a reserved seat, knowing that it was the last day of a three day weekend and the trains would be crowded, so I went to the ticket office...where there was a huge long line. I was sure that there must be a machine somewhere in the station that sold reserved seat tickets, but Kyoto station is HUGE and I didn't really feel like wandering around to look, so I gave up and got an non-reserved ticket. Naturally, there were no seats on the train I got on, so I ended up sitting on the floor for the 2 1/2 hour ride back to Tokyo. (But I was better off than the Japanese passengers, who of course are too squeamish about the floor to sit on it and stood the whole time.)
(For those that would like to see, my Expo pictures are here.)
My last English class for this term was on Thursday, and we had a party-like thing, so we played games and then ate snacks and talked. I had a nice long conversation with two of my favorite students, which was fun. I also had a slightly less pleasant conversation with my least favorite student (the one who spent an entire class trying to tell me that people don't die from heat stroke). One woman had brought in little crackery things that had natto (fermented soybeans) in them. I hesitated, but they all urged me to try one, so I did, and it wasn't too bad, actually. (It was dried, so it didn't have any of the nasty sliminess that normal natto does.) Then (and keep in mind this entire conversation is in Japanese) Mr. Know-It-All said: You know, that's fried in lard.
Woman: No, no it's not! These are healthy!
Me: Even potato chips aren't fried in lard.
Mr. Know-It-All: Some are.
Me: I guess some might be, but most aren't. And anyway, I can just read the bag...
Mr. Know-It-All: Yeah, the ingredients are listed. Oh, but you can't read them.
Me: ...? Yes I can.
Mr. Know-It-All: It's not English.
Me: I can read it.
Mr. Know-It-All: But there's kanji...it't not elementary school level.
Me: I SAID I CAN READ IT. [I got so angry at him that I forgot to use polite speech, which made some of the other people there laugh.]
I mean...ugh. Even if I don't understand every word that's on the package (because come on, I don't even know what some ingredients are when the package is in English), I know enough to recognize animal products.
On Friday, we had a meeting with some foreigners in the city about earthquake safety. In general, it was a really good meeting, but a lot of the Japanese people giving the talk need to learn how to speak more slowly and use easier words when talking with foreigners. When they first started talking, I thought maybe the foreigners they'd invited had really high level Japanese...and then the foreigners introduced themselves. There was one Japanese guy who made me cringe every time he talked because he talked so fast. I'm sure some of the people there didn't understand a word he said. The meeting made me start thinking that I should put together a disaster kit, though; I'm really not at all prepared for the Big One.
Ironically, the day after this meeting, Chiba was hit by a 6.0 earthquake. (And the first thing I thought when it hit: "Oh no! I knew I should have put that kit together!") There was no serious damage, but the train lines between Narita and Tokyo were closed all evening. I talked to Kojima-san today, who was working that day, and she said that she left work at five, but it wasn't until after nine that she got home. Not only that, but apparently the Keiyo Line was down all night...meaning all the people who had been at Disneyland were stranded; I heard that some of them actually spent the night at the train station. (I don't know if the park itself or any of the rides shut down, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did.)
As for me, I was at home, and while Choco and I were rather alarmed at the violent shaking and things falling off of shelves, we were fine. I went out shopping later, and it was then that I discovered the mess of trains not running; Chiba Station was a madhouse.
The reason I went shopping was to get a floor cushion for Choco, so won't have to fight over the chair any more. She's taken to it quite well and I've actually seen her choosing the cushion over the chair to sleep on. Success! And unlike the chair, I'll be able to bring the cushion home with me, so she can have it something familiar when we go to America.
A typhoon passed through yesterday, but the weather wasn't too bad here. I wouldn't even have realized it was a typhoon except that my coworkers had been talking about it. I was kind of looking forward to a nice storm, too; I like to listen to the wind howl outside. I think I miss Michigan summer storms.
Me: I buy about that much...
Amparo: Yep, that'll be your collection in sixty years.
On Saturday we went out to an Italian restaurant for lunch, and came back to find that the mailman had attempted to deliver the new Harry Potter in our absence (of course). So we waited for him to come back, and I may have read a few dozen pages, and then we went out shopping to get some supplies for cake making. After we got back, and I read some more Melissa showed up. We chatted for a while, and then proceeded to make a bunny cake. The frosting didn't turn out that great (it was too sweet...and coming from me, that's saying something), but it was awfully cute. We ate our cake, drank chocolate shakes (spiked with cookies and cream liqueur) and watched some...er...culturally enriching entertainment. It was...very...enriching.
We went to bed although some of us may have stayed up until four in the morning reading, and then got up bright and early at 5:00 to head out to Nagoya. We left around 6:30, and after some minor disagreements with the ticket machines (What do you mean I can only buy a ticket for a train from Maibara??) we were on our way.
It only took about an hour and a half to get to Nagoya, but little did we know that the fun part of the journey would be getting from Nagoya to the Expo site. First, you have to get on a special train, which stops about eight million times and takes about 40 minutes to get to the last stop. From there, you get off, and get on either the shuttle bus, or the tram (called the "linimo," which, in some bizarre Japanese idea of an abbreviation, stands for "linear motor") both of which add another 10 minutes to your journey...or would, if you didn't have to wait a half hour to get on them. Finally, we arrived, but before we could get too excited about this, we noticed that there was a huge crowd at the front gate, which did not appear to be moving through the gate at all. We stood in the crowd for about an hour and a half, speculating what the holdup was; when we finally got through we realized it was just a simple matter of too many people trying to get through the airport-esque security check (complete with metal detectors and X-ray machines) at once. As we went through security, we heard one man get angry and yell at the attendants, which is VERY unusual in Japan.
The problem with waiting an hour and a half just to get into the the gate is that we were all hot, tired and hungry before we even did anything. All I could think about was sitting down and having a drink of water. I wanted to go in the Wonder Circus Pavilion, but the wait was almost two hours, so we passed and headed for Spain instead, as we had seen a picture of a pirate ship galleon in my Expo guidebook. We stopped in a couple Southeast Asian pavilions on the way, and I think that Malaysia was actually really neat, but I was too tired to really care. Damn you, Half-Blood Prince.
As we walked from Southeast Asia to Europe, we found some vending machines, and stopped to have a drink and sit down for a moment. Feeling slightly better, we set off again for Spain. The Spanish Pavilion was mysteriously decorated with hexagons. We weren't really sure why, but we proclaimed them Pirate Hexagons and liked them. Even the attendants had hexagons on their uniforms, which amused us greatly. We waited in line a bit and then entered, where I was disappointed to discover that the pirate ship galleon was actually just a small model. Well, okay, as models go, it was really big, but I was expecting it to be a huge, room sized thing, maybe one that you could walk onto. Oh well. (It was Magellan's ship, incidentally.)
We left Spain and were thinking of going into Germany, but the line was too long, so we passed on it. The line for the bathroom was even longer, so we passed on that, too. We headed for a food court in the Japan Area, and found a bathroom there that was slightly less crowded...but right by the smoking area, which was only slightly less smokey than your average house on fire. Anyway, we waited for about fifteen minutes for the bathroom, and then headed to the food court, where we saw a bathroom with no line whatsoever. Typical. The air conditioned area was so crowded we had to fight to get seats, and then I ate some Turkish thing called a pide. (Mine was not lamb, obviously, it was cheese.)
After lunch, we felt obligated to check out the US Pavilion, so we headed over to North America. We stopped in the Mexico Pavilion on the way, which was really neat. I liked that they had some guys out front singing so you had something to amuse you while waiting in line. I also liked that they had a gift shop--they didn't have anything I wanted to buy, but I would have liked to buy something from some of the other places we visited ("Look, I've been to Malaysia!"), which didn't have gift shops.
The US Pavilion featured some sort of show, so there was a forty minute wait to get inside. (I tried to get us to the front of the line by saying that we were from the US, with no luck. But the guy I talked to was from the Detroit area.) When we got up nearer to the building itself, we were surprised to see a sign that proclaimed "WELCOME TO THE US PAVILION VISITORS." I wished that I had a Sharpie so I could have added a comma. There was such a big crowd, I'm sure no one would have noticed. Missing comma aside, I was not all that impressed with the US Pavilion. It was your typical Lookie What Science Can Do!! show (and why would anyone EVER think that Ben Franklin dancing to hip hop is a good idea?), but I was happy that I got to sit down for ten minutes.
We then headed back to the Wonder Circus Pavilion, where the wait was down to eighty minutes. It was a nifty little ride, but not worth the eighty minute wait. After coming back outside, we decided to brave the gift shop, which was quite the adventure. First of all, the store was so full there was a line to get in. Once you got inside, it was like trying to shop on a rush hour commuter train; it was all you could do to move, let alone see what kind of merchandise was available. Then, when you finally selected your purchases, you had to go back outside and wait in line for another half hour to get to the cash register. It was about 6:30 by the time we finished shopping, so we then headed out the gates to get in line for the train home. Fortunately we managed to sit (and sleep) the whole way back. We got home around ten, and all crashed into bed although some of us may have stayed up to read some more.
We took it easy the next morning, and once I finished Harry Potter sometime after noon we headed into Kyoto to shop. I needed to buy a new suitcase to replace my poor dragging thing (the second wheel of which was now also starting to go), and also Amparo had generously offered to make a yukata for me, so we needed to buy material. By the time we finished our purchases, it was after three, and I wanted to head home. I had not gotten a ticket for the trip home, so I went to the ticket machines to get one, only to find that the machine in question didn't sell reserved seat tickets. I really wanted a reserved seat, knowing that it was the last day of a three day weekend and the trains would be crowded, so I went to the ticket office...where there was a huge long line. I was sure that there must be a machine somewhere in the station that sold reserved seat tickets, but Kyoto station is HUGE and I didn't really feel like wandering around to look, so I gave up and got an non-reserved ticket. Naturally, there were no seats on the train I got on, so I ended up sitting on the floor for the 2 1/2 hour ride back to Tokyo. (But I was better off than the Japanese passengers, who of course are too squeamish about the floor to sit on it and stood the whole time.)
(For those that would like to see, my Expo pictures are here.)
My last English class for this term was on Thursday, and we had a party-like thing, so we played games and then ate snacks and talked. I had a nice long conversation with two of my favorite students, which was fun. I also had a slightly less pleasant conversation with my least favorite student (the one who spent an entire class trying to tell me that people don't die from heat stroke). One woman had brought in little crackery things that had natto (fermented soybeans) in them. I hesitated, but they all urged me to try one, so I did, and it wasn't too bad, actually. (It was dried, so it didn't have any of the nasty sliminess that normal natto does.) Then (and keep in mind this entire conversation is in Japanese) Mr. Know-It-All said: You know, that's fried in lard.
Woman: No, no it's not! These are healthy!
Me: Even potato chips aren't fried in lard.
Mr. Know-It-All: Some are.
Me: I guess some might be, but most aren't. And anyway, I can just read the bag...
Mr. Know-It-All: Yeah, the ingredients are listed. Oh, but you can't read them.
Me: ...? Yes I can.
Mr. Know-It-All: It's not English.
Me: I can read it.
Mr. Know-It-All: But there's kanji...it't not elementary school level.
Me: I SAID I CAN READ IT. [I got so angry at him that I forgot to use polite speech, which made some of the other people there laugh.]
I mean...ugh. Even if I don't understand every word that's on the package (because come on, I don't even know what some ingredients are when the package is in English), I know enough to recognize animal products.
On Friday, we had a meeting with some foreigners in the city about earthquake safety. In general, it was a really good meeting, but a lot of the Japanese people giving the talk need to learn how to speak more slowly and use easier words when talking with foreigners. When they first started talking, I thought maybe the foreigners they'd invited had really high level Japanese...and then the foreigners introduced themselves. There was one Japanese guy who made me cringe every time he talked because he talked so fast. I'm sure some of the people there didn't understand a word he said. The meeting made me start thinking that I should put together a disaster kit, though; I'm really not at all prepared for the Big One.
Ironically, the day after this meeting, Chiba was hit by a 6.0 earthquake. (And the first thing I thought when it hit: "Oh no! I knew I should have put that kit together!") There was no serious damage, but the train lines between Narita and Tokyo were closed all evening. I talked to Kojima-san today, who was working that day, and she said that she left work at five, but it wasn't until after nine that she got home. Not only that, but apparently the Keiyo Line was down all night...meaning all the people who had been at Disneyland were stranded; I heard that some of them actually spent the night at the train station. (I don't know if the park itself or any of the rides shut down, but it wouldn't surprise me if they did.)
As for me, I was at home, and while Choco and I were rather alarmed at the violent shaking and things falling off of shelves, we were fine. I went out shopping later, and it was then that I discovered the mess of trains not running; Chiba Station was a madhouse.
The reason I went shopping was to get a floor cushion for Choco, so won't have to fight over the chair any more. She's taken to it quite well and I've actually seen her choosing the cushion over the chair to sleep on. Success! And unlike the chair, I'll be able to bring the cushion home with me, so she can have it something familiar when we go to America.
A typhoon passed through yesterday, but the weather wasn't too bad here. I wouldn't even have realized it was a typhoon except that my coworkers had been talking about it. I was kind of looking forward to a nice storm, too; I like to listen to the wind howl outside. I think I miss Michigan summer storms.